I think he was under the weather when he typed this, although I applaud his patriotism it is hollywood vs reality. America did not exist, these were British people rebelling against British taxes etc, i.e. a civil war, now if you mentioned the later civil war he would go all sentimental. Sorry these weren't (yet) Americans, they were Brits who saw a chance to break away and above all profit, the leaders were anything but 'simple folk', they were opportunists. The French of course saw a great opportunity and as Frenchi and Timmah rightly pointed out sponsored it all, they in fact historically were the big losers by not gaining the control they expected. The fact is that as the superpower of the time it is us who could have 'nuked' them, but as explained earlier we had other fish to fry, our mistake.
What I would politely point out that as a relatively small nation we have kicked the arse of nearly everyone else in the world. So if you do want to come and nuke us make sure, make very sure, cos we love fighting, we don't brag, we just do.